Arkansas Injury Report: Updates on Kendall Diggs, key pitchers
The Arkansas baseball team's season is over and preparation for 2025 is already ongoing, but some Razorbacks' players are still recovering from injuries with varying timelines ahead of a long offseason.
Most key arms appear to be on schedule to take the mound again in the fall, while others are still questionable.
Below is the latest injury report for the Razorbacks following head coach Dave Van Horn's meeting with the media Wednesday morning. Van Horn hit on names like Kendall Diggs, Colin Fisher, Hunter Dietz, Christian Foutch, Adam Hachman and more.
LHP Hunter Dietz
One of many prized jewels from Arkansas' 2023 recruiting class, left-handed pitcher Hunter Dietz chose to start his career in Fayetteville rather than in Major League Baseball despite being the No. 57 overall prospect in the country according to Perfect Game.
Dietz — a 6-foot-6 lefty out of Trinity, Florida — appeared in two games on March 30 and April 9 but was shut down after a stress fracture injury that initially left him out to start the season came back around. Dietz had a procedure last fall to repair the stress fracture in his throwing elbow, and will use the offseason to fully recover ahead of the 2025 season.
"Just letting that bone heal around that screw," Van Horn said Wednesday. "Getting it tight, staying in shape. He’s back home in Florida. Not quite sure, you’d have to talk to coach Hobbs if he’s started throwing again."
During fall ball, Dietz shined in limited action while showcasing his high velocity against SEC hitters. It was believed that the lefty would have a major role for the Diamond Hogs, but things never came to fruition.
"He needed more time," Van Horn said. "Everything was good, it was good, bullpens great, let’s let him go and then it didn’t go good. We’ve got to get him healthy because he’s really talented and he pitched so good for a little while last fall. We got to see what he could do and the players knew what he could do. Hitters didn’t like hitting off of him, we could go on and on."
LHP Adam Hachman
Right behind Dietz in Perfect Game's 2023 class rankings at No. 58, Adam Hachman touts a big arm from the left side. Offseason surgery left him in the dugout for the entire 2024 season, and the timetable for the 6-foot-5, 245-pound Missouri native's return from an arm injury in high school is still unclear.
"Hachman, hurt that arm senior year in high school," Van Horn said. "Really hard thrower, needs to be a pitcher, needs to be able to pitch. We’re still figuring that one out but I’m sure in the next month, we’ll now where we’re at with that one."
Hachman had the internal brace procedure, not Tommy John surgery, which some have reported.
RHP Cooper Dossett
Sporting a 5.17 ERA with 20 strikeouts in 15.2 IP before suffering a season-ending arm injury on May 18 against Texas A&M, righty Cooper Dossett is back in Fayetteville and gearing up for a return during his junior campaign.
"He’s here working out," Van Horn said. "No surgery, everything is just... He’s just got to get strong. He’s just got to get strong. He’s had injury issues since his senior year, the summer before his senior year. That injury was really scary when it happened, he thought he had really torn his elbow, he didn’t as far as we know. That’s MRIs and using every avenue to figure out what up there."
A native of Springdale, Dossett made 14 appearances out of the bullpen for the Hogs and took the mound seven times against SEC opponents. He posted a 3-1 win/loss record with a season-high three scoreless frames against UAPB on April 23.
"I think mentally he’s okay," Van Horn said. "Now he’s just got to recover and if he stays healthy, he’s going to be really good. He throws that cutter and that slider. Fastball is in the mid 90s, bigger and stronger. Great kid, works extremely hard, you couldn’t as for anything more but when you are a pitcher and your arm’s bothering you, that’s not a good thing. We’ve got to get him healthy and feeling good about it."
LHP Colin Fisher
Perhaps the biggest blow to Arkansas' staff was freshman left-hander Colin Fisher, who was well on his way to stealing a spot in the starting rotation and likely would have done so considering the poor finishes by Brady Tygart and Mason Molina.
The Noble, Oklahoma, native didn't pitch after an April 17 matchup against Texas Tech, and had the internal brace procedure in early May to bring his season to an end.
"Fisher is here working out," Van Horn said. "Seems to be on schedule, ahead of schedule. Trying to stay in shape the best he can. Every indication right now, it looked good in there when they looked at it later. Like, hey, the surgery went great. When they got in there it wasn’t a tear, it was kind of a stretch and they could do this different procedure and that was the idea going in. See what they see and then do it and that’s what they did."
After coming in as the 409th overall prospect per Perfect Game, Fisher dazzled in 23.0 innings with a 1.96 ERA and 24 strikeouts. The 6-foot-3, 225-pounder only walked seven batters in nine appearances and six starts.
"If all goes good, he should be pitching for us in the spring and he’s a pitcher," Van Horn said. "You saw that, and he hurt it in high school. When they got in there they said this is an old injury. Give him credit too. He’s pitching probably some of his high school year, senior year, and in here with a problem. Pitched really well, especially early in the fall he was really good.
"When he gets healed up, he should really take off and continue to climb velocity wise. He already has what we call pitch ability. He throws strikes, changes speeds. He knows how to hold runners, quick to the plate. Now stay healthy, if he does that, he’s going to have a great career and he’ll pitch for a long time."
OF Kendall Diggs
Expected to have a big junior season after slashing .299/.436/.547 in 2023, right fielder Kendall Diggs started his 2024 season off strong before suffering a shoulder injury on a slide play against McNeese State on March 9. Van Horn revealed Wednesday that Diggs played the rest of the season with a complete tear of his labrum.
"You look at Kendall’s year, the first 14 or 15 games of the year, he was hitting upper 300s," Van Horn said. ".380, .370. When he slid headfirst on a wet field or an over-watered field - whatever you want to call it. It was early in the game - and he kind of got stuck and he hurt that shoulder. We all kind of groaned in the dugout. We didn’t know it at the time. He shook it off. Well, it’s a complete tear in his labrum. I think it’s like front and back."
Diggs continued to fight for his team, but could never get back on track and finished the year with a .229 batting average and 58 strikeouts. Diggs still managed to mash seven long balls and 11 doubles, a glimpse of what could have been if he was fully healthy. Now, the Razorbacks will have to fight off the MLB Draft for Diggs to wear an Arkansas uniform again.
"He is right now in the process of getting lined up to have surgery to get that fixed," Van Horn said. "He could still sign and be drafted. I think somebody might draft him. We’d love to have him back. He would have to miss all of Fall. It’s his non-throwing shoulder. It’s his left shoulder. You’ve got to give him credit. How tough was he to play all year long with that injury?
"He hurt it a couple of more times throughout the season. He ran into the wall at Kentucky. There was another time he hurt it. He made diving catches. He just played through it. Hats off to him."
Even with his injury, Diggs still had high highlight moments for the Diamond Hogs in 2024. Against Kentucky on May 3, the lefty finished 2-for-5 at the plate with four RBIs. Against SEMO in the NCAA Tournament, Diggs mashed a home run and five total bases en route to a 17-9 victory.
"It really hurt his offense," Van Horn said. "It altered his swing, it took away a little quickness. I know it probably had to hurt when he swung at certain pitches in certain areas. In a way, he disguised it. I’ve got to give credit to him with how tough he was. I hope we have an opportunity to coach him next year. Because he can get back and play.
"(Matt) Goodheart had the same injury, (Trevor) Ezell had the same injury. Those guys did nothing but hit here. Ezell’s was on his throwing arm and he hurt before he got to Arkansas when he was at SEMO. We took him in anyway and he learned how to throw side-armed. He played first base for us. Goodheart, it was pretty bad. He got through it and did a good job for us.”
Other Injury Tidbits
~ Though he will likely be selected in the 2024 MLB Draft, Van Horn stated that second baseman Peyton Stovall's arm is "still not 100% back" after he also suffered a torn labrum in the 2023 season. Stovall finished 2024 with a team-leading .340 batting average in 200 at-bats.
~ Flame-throwing righty reliever Christian Foutch has been shut down this summer for the time being after "having a little discomfort underneath his arm...like a pull" according to Van Horn. Foutch ended his sophomore season with a 0.81 ERA and 20 strikeouts in 22.1 IP.